Blue Note Records Signs Andrew Hill

NEW YORK (Blue Note Records) - Blue Note Records has re-signed Andrew Hill 42 years after the iconoclastic pianist/composer recorded his label debut in 1963. The signing marks the beginning of Hill's third tenure with Blue Note over the course of his long and venerable career. His new quintet recording, Time Lines, which was produced by Michael Cuscuna and features trumpeter Charles Tolliver, saxophonist & clarinetist Greg Tardy, bassist John Hebert, and drummer Eric McPherson, is scheduled to be released on February 22, 2006.

Considered 'the next Thelonious Monk' by Blue Note founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, Hill first made a name for himself with a series of groundbreaking recordings for the label between 1963-1970 that included such classic sessions as Black Fire, Judgement!, Point of Departure, and the 1969 nonet recording Passing Ships, which was first released in 2003 after the original tapes were discovered in the Blue Note vaults.

Hill returned to Blue Note in 1989, making two albums, Eternal Spirit and But Not Farewell, both of which featured the alto saxophonist Greg Osby and served as Osby's introduction to the label. Over the past several years Hill has made two critically-praised recordings for Palmetto Records, Dusk and Beautiful Day, that have won him several awards including the Jazz Journalist Association's Composer of the Year award in 2003.